General Introduction To Differentiating In The Classroom.

 
It seems like we have math classes with such a variety of abilities hat it is natural to want to differentiate.  I know that I want to differentiate especially since I usually have students who range from needing lots of help to those who can whiz through any material I put in front of them. 

Ideally, we should be able to tailor instruction to meet the individual needs of the students but in reality we can't always manage that so we'll look at what we can do.

To begin with there are four elements involved in differentiated instruction.  The first is content or what skills, knowledge or understanding do we want students to learn, second is process or how do we want students to understand or make sense of the material.  The third is the product or how will students show they have learned the skill, the knowledge or gained understanding and the fourth is the affect or how do their emotions or feelings impact their learning.

Lets go into those a bit deeper.  For content, we look at formative assessment to see where they at, think about using materials that have different reading levels, have materials on tape/cd/or computer read to them so they can follow along, present the ideas in a variety of manner, assign reading buddies, use multi-leveled questions, use small groups to monitor or reteach the material, use modeling, or flexible groups.

When talking about process, look at tiered activities, stations, manipulatives, time lengths that are variable depending on ability of students since some students need more time to finish and assignment than others.  learning or math journals, graphic organizers, use jigsaw or think-pair-share, learning menus, web quests, or labs, and manipulatives. 

Students can show their understanding through the use of choice boards, quiz, test, podcast, blog, presentation, use rubrics that are at the level of the student,  or encourage the student to come up with a way to show what they learned. 

Differentiated instruction does require that teachers plan ahead. It is suggested that teachers decided exactly what knowledge or skills students are expected to master due to the instruction. Then the teacher should conduct a pre-assessment to see which students have already mastered the concept or skill and which ones will need additional support.  Finally teachers need to determine which strategies will help all students learn. 

If you look at the process in more detail, the teacher sets the learning objective, conducts the assessment, introduces the topic, uses various effective teaching strategies, assign learning activities, have resources available, think about the product students show their mastery, how will students be grouped and possible extension activities for students who either have already mastered the material or master it quickly. 

This is a general introduction to the topic.  Friday, we will look at this topic in more detail.  Specifically how to implement it in the math classroom because sometimes that can be much more difficult.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.